EDITORIAL: Giving Ferries the Leadership That's Needed

Accountability — with a capital "A" — is being required of Washington State Ferries.

In a unanimous 49-0 vote — a rarity in bills of significant substance — the state Senate last Saturday approved a bill that orders Washington State Ferries officials to develop long-range plans for adequately maintaining their boats, estimating their useful life, and having replacement vessels ready when they're retired.

Last November, new Secretary of Transportation Paula Hammond ordered the immediate retirement of four 80-year-old ferries that had become unsafe due to hull corrosion and leaks. Soon after, four other ferries were ordered into dry dock for emergency hull repairs.

Washington State Ferries had struck the tip of a long-hidden iceberg — a lack of leadership and accountability.

Saturday's legislation is the beginning of a major course correction for our state ferries. Prime-sponsored by influential Transportation Committee chair Sen. Mary Margaret Haugen, the bill tells Washington State Ferries to do what it should have been doing — but wasn't.

It also takes authority for the ferries' capital plan away from the Transportation Commission, and passes it to the Legislature.

"This signals a shift of focus from reliance on the Transportation Commission to having the Legislature more directly engaged in those decisions relating to ferries," said Sen. Phil Rockefeller, D-Bainbridge Island.

Rockefeller and Sen. Derek Kilmer, D-Gig Harbor, were among co-sponsors of the bill.

In large part, this bill implements recommendations from last year's study by the legislative Joint Transportation Committee and, here and there, takes it a step or two further. Besides giving a jump-start to long-needed leadership for ferries, this legislation implicitly indicates increased legislative support for funds to maintain and replace our state ferries — providing that need is well planned and documented.

"This is going to be helpful in developing a more rational plan of investments for building and replacing vessels," said Rockefeller. "It's a serious problem and we need to have an adequate maintenance and preservation program, which obviously has been underfunded in the past."

The bill requires that all those elements, and more, will be included in the ferry system's capital plan. In addition, the bill no longer would allow the Transportation Commission to adopt the capital plan; instead, the commission would simply review the plan, and report it to the legislative transportation committees.

In addition, the bill goes beyond simply requiring a maintenance and preservation program — it specifies some inspection elements that must be included.

For Bremerton and Port Townsend riders, a particularly thorny issue has been reduced service when ferries are abruptly pulled out for repairs or emergency maintenance. Under the new legislation, ferries officials must reduce planned out-of-service time "to the greatest extent possible" and strive to eliminate out-of-service periods during peak usage seasons.

Finally, the bill specifies that with each budget request, Washington State Ferries must include a "plain language status report" describing the maintenance and preservation of every vessel in the fleet.

If you think all this sounds like micro-managing, you're right. In effect, the Legislature is telling Washington State Ferries, "If you can't do it yourself, we'll do it for you."

We strongly endorse this bill, commend all who had a hand in its preparation, and urge its speedy passage in the House.